Monday question: The Bills and rooting for an epic loser

They gather now, friends and strangers, drawn by the simple fact that watching their beloved Bills in the solitude of their homes had proven just too difficult.

“It was getting real painful to watch alone,” said Bryon McKim of Albany, a Wilton native with Western New York roots. “It’s really frustrating.”

The 25-year-old would watch games with fellow Bills fan Ed Lass. “It was just me and him,” the 29-year-old Lass said, “but we were getting sick of the company.”

So after Buffalo’s 0-5 start to the season McKim decided to call out to other Buffalo Bills fans in the area, and the Albany Bills Backers were born. Now, sure, there are fan clubs for NFL teams in numerous cities, including here. But who starts one for a quasi-out-of-town team that is winless and universally regarded as the worst in the NFL?

More than 20 showed up the first weekend at the designated gathering spot, McGeary’s in downtown Albany. On Sunday there were close to 30 watching the Bills play the Kansas City Chiefs. (That does not count Steve Barnes, the TU’s restaurant critic and blogger extraordinaire. On this NFL Sunday he and a friend sat at the bar watching – and it hurts me to say this – soccer.)

You can’t call these Bills fans bandwagon jumpers: A hearse is a more suitable form of transportation. So why get together week after week just to witness in all likelihood another loss?

Maybe this makes it easier to understand: Don’t think of the Bills Backers as a fan club as much as a support group. The theory goes like this: You can cry alone or, as Rockhound of “Armageddon” said, embrace the horror with others over a few beers and laughs.

It’s a coping mechanism. If you are a sports fan, meaning a fan of more than one team, you have probably experienced either epic or prolonged losing, or perhaps both. (The Bills qualify all across the spectrum right now.) When your favorite sports team, particularly in football, is chronically losing, you can distance yourself from the passion, dive head first into draft prospectuses, go for long Sunday walks with your significant other, switch teams – INCREDIBLY bad form for an adult – or … embrace the horror.

“It’s to make the best of a bad situation,” Andrew Koszuta, a transplant from Tonawanda who now lives in Albany, said of getting together with others. The 32-year-old even designed the “Decade of Fail” logo seen above, in (dis)honor of the Bills’ fruitless 2000s.

“I’m having a lot of fun with this season. It’s not as heartbreaking,” he said. Koszuta looked around the bar. “I think it’s therapeutic, definitely. It’s more people to joke with. You share your misery.”

He was driving back from Buffalo last week, listening to the Bills-Baltimore Ravens game and wondering how the Bills were going to lose. Buffalo shockingly took the Ravens into overtime before losing a 37-34 shootout.

There were few expectations for winning this Sunday with Buffalo going on the road again to face another first-place team, the Chiefs. When Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles broke off a long run in the first quarter, the chorus along the bar began.

There you go. That’s how you do it. …

I’ve seen this one before. …

Is there a movie on? …

But a lopsided defeat would not do for the Bills, not this year. Buffalo came back, took the game to overtime and made the game-winning field goal … that was immediately taken off the board by a last-second Kansas City timeout before the snap. The second attempt hit the upright.

Then KC missed a field goal, restoring hope. Then Buffalo drove, but stumbled. Then and only then, as the final seconds of overtime ticked off, did the Chiefs finally put the Bills and their fans out of their misery. Final: Chiefs 13 Bills 10.

“They find new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” McKim said almost admiringly. “That’s Buffalo Bills football.”

As people filed out of McGeary’s Sunday, the I knew its were mixed with a whole bunch of See you next weeks. Meanwhile, McKim is still holding out hopes of a 9-7 year. Well, not really. But you do what you gotta do to cope.

What was the worst team you rooted for in any sport, and how did you cope with the anguish/embarrassment?

29 Responses

A) Nice article. And good to see you met some Bills fans east of Utica as that’s where I cut off the line. Seems to be all about the Giants in the Capital Distict.

B) True Bills fans, as hurt as we are today (and last week with the OT loss) are true to our team. I pre-date Kelly, Thurman Thomas, etc… I even pre-date Joe Cribbs and his kid plays for the Cleveland Browns now.

C) I’ll never be embarressed to support my team. That’s an “American” way of thinking. People in Europe support their football (soccer) clubs rain or shine. The defintion of a true fan is you live with it. Win or lose. Other Countries equate sport with loyalty, sadly, America does not.

Two straight OT defeats at Arrowhead and M&T, how many teams in the NFL can do that? Bills still haven’t played a team with a losing record, put them in the NFC West and they might win it. Any Bills’ fans that haven’t been down to McGeary’s yet for a game I definitely suggest it, is a great place to celebrate/commiserate.

Bills have a good chance to get their first “W” this week playing near their hometown while in Canada……they at least give effort when they play….

I still believe without question, being a METS fan is the worst possible team to root for….when they were dominant they won only one championship (’86) and we had to go through H-E double hockey sticks to get it……the other championship was a miracle (’69)

Make fun of the Bills. They will never be as bad as the Rich Kotite Jets or the Hank Bullough/Kay Stevenson Bills of the mid-’80′s (the group that allowed for the birth of the dominant Bills of the early 90′s).

As a newly added Direct TV Sunday Ticket subscriber, the games yesterday were horrible (mainly thanks to me being a Jets fan) but there was plenty of suck to go around, except for Detroit and Phoenix. Horribly boring 3+ hour games.

Yes Mark, the Liverpool – Bolton Wanderers 1-0 game yesterday was far more exciting than the great NFL had to offer. Jets/GB was unwatchable. Step off your attitude for a moment and it doesn’t have to be a World Cup match to be exciting.

@JWR: Lighten up, Francis, the soccer thing was a way to bust on Barnes …

But you make an important point: Both the Bills and the Jets hit very rock bottom before resurging under Levy/Parcells. There is a thought teams in the NFL have to do that; note how the Bills have been on a mediocrity merry-go-round the past decade.

And, no, no Jets fan would/should bust on the Bills right now. If they were around in the 1990s they know the pain all too well. (Same could be said for a Giants fan from the 1970s, truly a lost decade in New York pro football.)

@Alyssa: But a true sports fan, one who roots for more than one team, has probably gone through this before. Example: As a fan of the Jets, Mets and St, Bonaventure, I know EXACTLY what Bills Backers feel.

The question is what is the best way to cope. I became a hardcore draftnik in the 1990s primarily because the NYJ were so awful. I had to look toward the future because the present was too painful.

The amazing thing about all the Bills suck is that in the current NFL almost every team not owned by Al Davis is hard pressed to have prolonged suck. The Bills have managed somehow not to partake in the NFL’s Extreme Makeover and not given even one season of excitement to their fan base. Hell, even the Bidwell owned Cardinals have managed to be exciting. Between an impotent owner and front office and the inability to sign any decent coaches or players, the Bills have been the NFL’s version of the 1990′s Bengals.

The Bills franchise is doing the slow rust that the steel mill south of Buffalo did for 20 years before it was torn down. This franchise needs to be torn down.

Nice write-up, Mark. Being a Central NY transplant I have witnessed (although not experienced directly as I’m a Giants fan) first-hand the heartache of a town that lives and mostly dies with each Bills season.

In the 90′s, most of CNY could at least take solace from the woeful Bills by watching the Syracuse Orangemen Football team tear up the Big East. However, the Orangemen (and essentially the entire Big East conference) has lost its gridiron lustre throughout the past decade. What did I do to cope? I stopped watching. I didn’t change allegiances, I just stopped watching college football altogether.

Now the Orange, from what I hear, have some semblance of a team again this year. I’d try to catch a game some time, but new habits seem to die as hard as the old ones.

Mark, thanks for an “enlightening” article, I just heard Jim Rome talk today for a couple of minutes on his opening monologue about the Buffalo Bills. He stated that he thought they were “absolutely better than the Dallas Cowboys”. He also stated that “he would pay to go see the Buffalo Bills, but not the Dallas Cowboys”
Jim Rome went on break and I was amazed that he came back and continued the same theme. Basically, he stated that the Buffalo Bills “care, compete, and have pride” compared to the debacle called the Dallas Cowboys, all stemming from “the top of the organization, down”.
“Bills Backers” is an organized network that has over 100,000 Bills fans in more than 150 chapters. Bills Backers of Saratoga, Southern Saratoga County, Albany, Columbia County, and Poughkeepsie are just a few of the local chapters. Maybe for your next article on the Bills [unlike your constant negative rhetoric seen in Oct 10,21 (twice!), 24,and 31 (twice,again!)blogs], try a trully enlightening outlook.

@Talking: If you took this as anything but respect for hardcores, you are missing the entire point. The fans who stick with a team through bad, then even horrific seasons are not to be mocked. The reason this group was highlighted is that it formed at the nadir of of Bills football.

Oh, and the difference between the Bills and Cowboys is talent, period. I agree the Bills have not quit (see the last two weeks). The same can’t be said in Dallas. In that sense it is much easier to root for the Bills this year than the Cowboys, who are underachieving at an epic level.

Life-long Red Sox fan here. If you mean worst as in KC Royals, early TB Buccaneers, up until recent NO Saints, etc, then the Sox teams I grew up with were never the worst. In fact, for many years of my watching, they were pretty darn good. But golly, they were the most frustrating, most painful to watch. For out and out bad among my favorites it would be a tie between the late 60′s/early 70′s Giants and the post Big 3 until 3 years ago Celtics. I coped by always waiting until next year.

(Of course, this doesn’t take into account the fact that I’ve spent the better part of the last two decades rooting for various youth soccer teams, some of which had record that required abundant coping skills (mostly in the form of heavy laughter).

I am a Giants fan… I root for the Jets and Buffalo when they’re not playing each other… I was great when the Bills were in the Super bowl and I liked the Jim Kelly teams very much. That all being said, and much like the Giants of the 70′s, the owners didn’t care and didn’t go out and get the players required to compete. The Bills ownership and management is sadly lacking.

Great article, Mark. This is an awesome development for local Bills fans. Anyone that truly roots for the Bills knows that it’s not just a Fall hobby like it is for fans of most teams. It’s a committment that borders on obsession and you just can’t shake it. Wide right, four Super Bowl losses, the Music City forward pass, Dallas on Monday night in 2007, Cleveland on Monday night in 2008, a 5-1 start only to finish 7-9 in 2008, New England on Monday night in 2009…I could go on. As a Bills fan, it’s impossible to watch a game, no matter how well we’re playing, and not think “how could we/will we lose this one?”

Bills fans border on delusional, all of us, and we love it. There is nothing better than a Bills gameday experience. The best tailgate in the NFL. The best fans in the NFL. Because we all can’t share in that misery at each home game, having a satellite office at McGeary’s to do so is the next best thing. Not to mention, the Bills are New York’s ONLY professional football team. It’s only fitting that we form a solid support group in the Empire State’s capital city.

I will keep spreading the word about this group and encourage all local Bills fans to do so.

@Stevie – You pretty much hit it on the head. If you has ever been to the Ralph and experienced how much the Bills mean to the City of Buffalo and Bills Fans you can understand why the Bills Backers was created. The Bills have one of the most tenaciously dedicated fan bases in the entire Sports world.

As a longtime SF Giants fan – I urge you all to keep the faith. I never thought in my lifetime they would have a World Series Title.
KEEP THE FAITH – and mostly , never, ever, jump off the ship.
It feels a lot better when it actually happens.

Being a Bills fan these days is tough. It has been a disgraceful season and past decade. At least the other Bills teams didn’t start this poorly. The most frustrating thing is they always make the big mistake, the crutial turnover, the false starts, missed kicks to blow games. The run defense has been pathetic, a high school team could run on these guys. Horrible drafts and personell deciscions. Nothing will change until the team is sold or Ralph and the front office open up the check book and get some real talent and better coaches.

At the time I went nuts screaming at the TV (and I’m not a Bills fan), but I think a lot of the woes stems from one draft pick: Aaron Maybin at No. 11in 2009. He had bust written on him at the time, and now it’s etched in Vernon Gholston stone.

Of course teams whiff on picks all the time, but the passing on Brian Orakpo and Michael Oher was insanity.

Here are just some of the available players that made more sense at the time, and definitely now:

Mark: Aaron Maybin was an all-time AWFUL pick. He looks like a Nintendo Wii character–his upper body is inverted. Yes the Clay Matthews, Michael Oher, Brian Cushing and Brian Orakpo non-picks could go down as the worst draft in Bills history. Aaron Maybin started 10 games in college, and wasn’t a starter to begin his only year as a letterman. I may never get it. I still don’t know what a “Donte Whitner” is. Eric Flowers? JP Losman? John McCargo?

Mark, your claiming it resides on ONE draft pick? How about this take:
Starting from 2002 through 2009, 7 out of 16 first and second draft picks that Buffalo has chosen are still on the team and contributing, 2 out of 16 are on the team and not contributing (waiting to be let go), and the rest are history. You don’t want to know the stats on Buffalo’s draft picks 3 through 7! Absolutely horrible!
Since 2002, Buffalo has had 4 coaches (excluding Chan Gailey), 3 GM’s (excluding Buddy Nix), and one (yes one!) Vice President of College Scouting, Mr. Tom Modrak. Although Tom still has the same title, I believe that any and all college scouting responsibilities on the Buffalo Bills resides with Buddy Nix and Doug Whaley.
When Ralph Wilson fired Tom Donahoe in 2006, he hired Marv Levy to be GM to (as Ralph Wilson said at the time) “bring stability back to the Buffalo Bills”. Ralph always took interest in how the Rooney’s handled the Pittsburgh Steelers management / coaching decisions (still does to this day). He could see that the stable GM role was an all important intangible item that had been missing since Bill Polian left in the 1990’s (with Ralph sorely cursing himself for dabbling in the way Bill Polian ran the Buffalo Bills).
With the Levy – Brandon – Jauron fiasco that occurred from 2006 through 2009, you can see that Ralph Wilson still wanted to follow the “long term commitment” to a stable franchise, but had to intervene when logic dictated it. The firing of Dick Jauron (and internal restructuring that would send Russ Brandon back to the marketing side of the football business as soon as a new GM was found) in midseason gave Ralph the needed time to make the biggest (and possibly last) decision as owner of the Buffalo Bills…who would be the new GM of his franchise.
I believe that Buddy Nix told Ralph that his “plan” for the Buffalo Bills is what I had been saying to fellow Bills Backers, friends, and family for 3 years, at the time in 2009. The Bills were past their prime for “quick fixes”, the last one being the hiring of Terrell Owens. It is analogous to putting a band-aid on a major wound time after time.
That “plan” was for a 5 year commitment from Ralph Wilson to Buddy Nix and whoever his head coach would be. Nix needed a head coach that would be willing to restructure the team over the first 2 years, basically “rip down” the team to it’s base core. Through the draft and signing of undrafted rookie free agents, the “base core” of the Buffalo Bills will be established by September 2012. Also during this time frame, it will give the head coach the time to be sure that he is satisfied with his coaching staff, since the new head coach and Nix would have to start an aggressive hiring campaign in Jan 2010, when most teams were ramping up for free agent signings and the NFL draft.
Ralph Wilson must have liked what Buddy Nix had to say and made him GM in January 2010. He knew that Nix had worked with Buffalo in the 1990’s as a college scout and was. in fact, “National Scout” with the Bills at the time Ralph made him GM. With Nix as San Diego’s Asst. GM and Director of Player Personnel, he was the man in charge of college scouting and the leader of the NFL Draft for the Chargers. From 2001 through 2007, he sent 14 San Diego Chargers that he was responsible for drafting to the Pro Bowl along with winning 4 AFC West titles.
Before accepting the GM position, Nix made three decisions that Ralph Wilson had to agree to. Those decisions were that Nix would be solely responsible for picking the head coach (due to the head coach needing to be “on the same page” as Nix with this plan), that Tom Modrak would not make any decisions on any future draft (and possibly not have any input), and that Nix would be solely responsible for hiring an Asst. GM. who will take over for Nix
From January 2010 till September 2010, Nix has hired Chan Gailey and Doug Whaley as Asst. GM. The 2010 draft has 8 out of 9 making the 53 man roster and practice squad. Buffalo signed 15 undrafted rookies after the 2010 Draft and 5 have made the 53 man roster (where the NFL team average is 1.8). The team has hired two (2) Strength and Conditioning coaches and altered the environment in which strength and conditioning is being worked on. The results are a 5 year low injury rate on the 2010 Buffalo Bills to date.
From September 2010 till present, the Buffalo Bills have released Trent Edwards, Marshawn Inch (oops..Lynch), Kawiaka Mitchell, Chris Ellis, and 6 other “starters”; still supporting the fact that the team is still in “rip down” mode during the regular season when most other teams would never think of proceeding with this course of action. Ryan Fitzpatrick has a better QB rating than Eli Manning, Joe Flacco, Aaron Rogers, and a host of other QB’s. The YOUNG tandem of Jackson and Spiller is producing consistent and improving yardage in the run game. The O-Line that averages 3 years of NFL experience is becoming a dominant force over the last few weeks, especially with the addition of UNDRAFTED ROOKIE Cordero Howard taking Cornell Greens place. Kyle Williams understanding of the nose tackle position and its responsibilities over the past 3 weeks has him as becoming a dominant player on defense – 3 sacks and a mess of tackles over those 3 weeks helps Coach Gailey and Coach Edwards to come up with answers on Buffalos run defense.
Don’t get me wrong…..the Buffalo Bills have a very long way to go, but as John “Hannibal” Smith would say…”I love it when a plan comes together”!!